Cutting the Strings
by jellolids
Summary: An in depth version of portions of manga chapters 34, 36, and 41, primarily seen from over Rima's shoulder.


I don't own _Vampire Knight_. Seriously wish I did, though. It's an excellent story! However, that is not the case. I don't own any of the dialogue in here either; it's entirely from chapters 34, 36, and 41 of the manga. It's copied word for word, so don't go giving me credit for that.

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Rima was exhausted. For once, she wished that she was not a member of the Night Class, so that she would not be stuck watching Kurosu Yuuki during the day for no apparent reason. In addition, she was worried about Shiki. She knew that he was not on the best terms with his family, and that he always came back from visiting them in a bad mood. Then she would be stuck with a sulking Shiki for weeks. She hated watching it. For those reasons, she was passed out on the couch, hoping to take a brief nap before she had to join the rest of the Night Class and head to class.

"I'm so tired..." she muttered into the pillow she was using, "Letting me do a weird job like this..."

"Welcome back, Tooya-sama." Said one of the maids for the Moon Dorm in a perky voice, which made Rima want to kill, "There are actually guests waiting for you." Rima rolled over

"Hmm... Not right now..." She muttered into her pillow, less than half awake.

"Rima." Rima's eyes flashed open in shock, as she recognized the voice. She sat up and whirled to see Shiki standing on the stairs, leaning against the bannister, with Ichijou standing on the ground beneath him. "I'm back." Rima was startled; Shiki was not supposed to be back for at least another day. More importantly, he was with Ichijou. Not that Shiki and Ichijou did not get along, but it was not usual to see them together. Normally, Shiki would have found Rima first, before doing anything else.

"Shiki..." Rima began, confused, and wondering if this was possibly a hallucination brought on by fatigue. She had never personally experienced one, but she had read that they were quite very convincing. Then she decided that if she was hallucinating, she might as well get some answers out of it. "What have you been doing?" Shiki came down the stairs and approached her, his hands in his pockets.

"I had to do some thing..." He said with a shrug. Rima resisted the urge to narrow her eyes. Shiki did not keep secrets from her. Never. Something was very wrong here. Maybe this really _was_ a hallucination. "But more importantly..." He placed his hand on the back of the couch next to Rima's head, and leaned over her, making her eyes widen slightly. Shiki _never _acted like this. Ever. "I'm really hungry now." Rima resisted the urge to flinch away from him as his angle gave her an excellent view of his eyes. One was an icy blue, but the other was a burgundy shade of brown. More importantly, the burgundy eye was not Shiki's. Now seriously disturbed, Rima asked shakily

"Hey, Shiki.... those eyes... what happened?" Shiki smirked evilly.

"...Something happened..." He leaned toward her and Rima's eyes opened even wider, this time in raw fear. Ichijou's hand snapped out and grabbed Shiki's arm to stop him.

"Stop playing around, Shiki." Ichijou said sounding vaguely nervous to Rima. Like he knew something, and was trying to hide it. Then his voice sobered. "Don't you have something important to do?" Shiki backed off with another smirk. He turned and walked away, leaving a very suspicious and slightly disturbed Rima sitting on the couch. As soon as he and Ichijou were out of the room, Rima's eyes narrowed to slits, and she began plotting as to how to get rid of the intruder she was now certain inhabited Shiki's body.

When Ichijou and Shiki left the Moon Dorm together, Rima followed, keeping herself concealed as best as she possibly could, hoping that whoever was inside Shiki would not notice. She was as surprised as anyone when she smelled the blood of a second pureblood, but she chose to focus on Shiki and Ichijou instead of trying to understand it. Shiki seemed unsurprised

"Now!" He said to Ichijou, and the listening Rima. "The fruit is ripe. Is it time for me to take it down?" His words sent a shiver down Rima's spine. Ichijou gave him a look of confusion, and Shiki began to explain. "Kaname chose to make her a vampire first, and let her awaken without any pain. Drinking Kuran's blood as a "human". For her to awaken like that, it could have given her more pleasure." After a long moment, Shiki turned to the building that was the source of the pureblood scent with a glare on his face. "Kiryuu Zero... Ichiru's twin." He said the words like they were a curse, then turned to Ichijou with a smirk. "Ichijou, do you know about the taboo for hunters to be twins?" Ichijou looked as confused as Rima felt.

"Hunters? I know the origins of it...." He said, obviously not understanding Shiki's train of thought any more than Rima did, tucked into her hiding place in the tree. Shiki grinned evilly.

"However, it doesn't relate to the two of them because they don't get along." Shiki turned to look more closely at Ichijou. "Your face tells me you are dissatisfied. Is it because I want to make her my prey," Rima's eyes widened. Shiki's possessor wanted to hunt a pureblood. This was looking worse and worse to her. "Or is it because you betrayed Kaname?" He continued, taking what Rima could tell was malicious glee in Ichijou's obvious discomfort. Rima couldn't help but feel a stab of compassion for the blonde vampire. It would kill Ichijou to betray his best friend. "Or is it because I'm using Senri's body as a hostage?" Rima's eyes sparked, and she clenched her jaw. She leapt from her place on in the trees to the top of the wall in time to see Shiki dig his fingers into his own throat. Or rather, the person riding in Shiki dig Shiki's fingers into his throat. Rima felt a pang of fear. She wanted to scream, to do something to make him stop. Fortunately, she did not have to. Ichijou did it for her.

"Please... stop!" Ichijou grabbed Shiki's hand and hauled it away from his neck. Shiki started to laugh, and Rima heaved a sigh of relief from her new seat on the wall. Shiki stopped laughing.

"Hey!" He called, and Rima realized that he had heard her. Mentally, she kicked herself as Shiki jerked his arm from Ichijou's hold, and turned to face her. "Don't just sit there, come here!" Rima instantly replaced her cold and indifferent mask, the only expression that she allowed the world to see. She was fairly certain that it was not perfect, but it was a great deal better than nothing. Shiki's rider smiled up at her. "Rima."

"Hey you..." She said coolly. "You aren't Shiki, right?" She allowed her eyes to narrow to slits. "Who are you? I won't let you get away so easily!" _That_ was true enough. Shiki had things hard enough as it was. Besides, Shiki was _hers_. No one else, except maybe Kaname-sama, had permission to mess with her Shiki. Therefore, she was going to rectify the situation, and get rid of Shiki's possessor.

Shiki's blood whip snapped out, and slashed Rima's side, knocking her off the wall. Rima landed like a cat, her hand going to her side, and feeling her blood seep slowly over her fingers. She glared at Shiki in pure outrage.

"Hurting a model's body, you are the worst! And it is a sudden attack too!" She hissed. She stood. "In times like these, I feel so glad to be a vampire." She pulled her hand from her side as she felt her skin knitting together. "Fast healing!" Shiki watched her in silence, his blood whip streaming around him. Ichijou stepped between them.

"The wound is quite deep, don't force yourself." He told Rima quietly. Rima was seriously confused.

"Ichijou-san." She murmured knowing her voice sounded very nearly as confused as she felt. However, she was certain Ichijou did not notice. His attention was focused entirely on Shiki, or rather, the person controling Shiki.

"This is not the time to use Shiki's hands to do such things." Ichijou said firmly, in what Rima thought was a voice that held a vaguely pleading note. Shiki's possessor was silent for a moment, then smirked.

"What if I say that sooner or later, I will remove all the anti-Councils just like Ichiou hoped?" This declaration, so unlike Shiki's true opinions, triggered Rima's fury. As always, her fury was odd. Instead of igniting a flame that soon roared into a fire, as with most people, Rima's fury was like ice, slowly freezing her, making her even colder than usual.

"Rido-sama." Ichijou said, sounding slightly angry. Rima did not notice. With the ice of her fury flowing through her veins, Rima spoke.

"You're pissing me off." She raised a hand, calling the electricity that was her gift as a noble vampire to it. Brilliant blue sparks immediately began to fly from her hand. "Using Shiki's face and voice, but saying something so vulgar to me." Her hand shot to her side, making the air it passed to writhe with bursts of her electricity. She was ready to strike. Her eyes narrowed. "I will kick the person inside Shiki's body out. Just put that in mind!" She hissed. Shiki's possessor, this Rido, raised his eyebrows skeptically, and smirked.

"Humph. It's not that easy!" Ichijou's eyes widened as he saw Rido's attack come up behind her.

"Rima!" He yelled, and attempted to pull her out of the way. He was not quite fast enough; Rido's whip stabbed through her shoulder, missing her heart, its intended target by a hand's breadth. Rido seemed surprised by his miss, and muttered

"Wrong side?" as Rima doubled over Ichijou's arm, trying to hide the pain from her eyes before she faced Rido again. To her, this was the last straw. Rido was using Shiki to do things she _knew_ her Shiki would never do under any circumstances. The worst part was, she realized as she faintly heard Ichijou calling out the possessor's name again, was that Shiki had probably let this happen because the baka had been trying to please his family _again_. When would he learn that it did not _matter _what the rest of his blasted family thought of him, as long as he did what _he _thought was right? She was sick of it.

"Shi..ki." She ground out around her pain, steeling herself to say the only words she could, the words she hoped would reach Shiki now, even with Rido riding him. "Idiot!" Rido seemed unfazed. Rima snapped her head upward to look him in the eye, desperately trying to connect with the Shiki she knew was still in there somewhere, deep down. "Letting someone else do as he pleases, YOU SHOULD TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF MORE!" She screamed. She slumped forward, her energy spent, totally dependant on Ichijou to remain upright. Her eyes fluttered shut, and oblivion beckoned.

"Don't...Fight... Back, Senri." She heard Rido mutter as the darkness swamped her.

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Shiki woke, dazed, on the bed of a room in the Moon Dorm. It took him a moment to remember how he got there, but then the images began trickling back. His father taking possession of him, and using him to forward his plots at Cross Academy. His father's presence was gone now, for which he was grateful. He also remembered that it had been Ichijou his father had relied upon for information about the Night Class, which meant that Ichijou was probably in the room. Shiki sat up, covering the eye that had so recently been burgundy instead of its usual icy blue.

"Ichijou-san?" He called, then saw the blonde vampire unsheathing was long, sharp katana. Shiki was fairly certain that it was an anti-vampire blade, which, in his mind, begged the question. "What are you doing?" Ichijou glanced at him over his shoulder.

"Hmm? Something happened." He smiled slightly. "A vampire showed up and attacked you guys when you were asleep." You guys? Shiki wondered. Who else was with them? Then he remembered.

"_I won't let you get away so easily!" _Rima's words rang in his head. Shiki nearly winced, remembering them. Shiki dropped his hand from over his eye.

"Other than this, don't you have somewhere you wanted to go?" He asked Ichijou, knowing for certain that Ichijou would want to go find Kaname in a desperate attempt to make amends for his actions. "I'm okay now, so..." Ichijou closed his eyes, and slammed the katana back into its sheath.

"I see," he murmured. "I will leave Rima to you, then." With those words, Ichijou left. Shiki turned back to the bed, remembering every detail of how Rima had fought to free him, and how it had been hearing her scream at _him_, not his father, and seeing her fall unconscious from an attack thrown by his hand that had finally given him the strength to fight his father for control. He turned to look at her. Rima's strawberry blonde hair spread out under her head like a cloud.

"Rima.." He whispered, his face serious as he studied her face. She looked so fragile, lying there, pale as cracked ice, with her eyes closed in sleep. Another memory assaulted him.

"_Senri, if you want Mom to calm down, then just be quiet, and live like a puppet."_ The memory of his mother's words had haunted him for years. He had done what she asked. He supposed she was proud of him. He certainly hoped she was; he loved her, after all, and the only reason he was like this was a desperate attempt to gain her affection.

"_Shiki! You should love yourself more!" _It was no longer his mother's long, unkempt, dark, brown hair and tired burgundy eyes that filled his vision, but immaculate strawberry blonde pigtails tied with satin ribbons above twin blazing sky blue irises. Rima, quite possibly the only person who truly cared about him, from the first time she had told him what she thought of the way he acted around his family. He still remembered her icy anger at his family, for treating him like their puppet. She had yelled her words at him when he had explained that to them, that was all he was.

Shiki reached out a hand to touch her cheek. He had not listened to her that day, or any of the other times she yelled at him to care more for himself, and it had lead to _her _pain and suffering, at his own hand.

"...Sorry." He murmured, and reached out to embrace the sleeping girl.

There was a noise by the window, and Shiki turned his head, shifting from an embrace to a protective crouch over Rima. Near the open window stood a vampire dressed in black, wearing sunglasses.

"Although I had lost all of my powers," The vampire began "But I'm not hoping to get it back now," he hastily assured Shiki, "I'm only here to check something out," the vampire paused, probably to take in Shiki's slightly confused face, "You are Rido-sama's puppet?" A cold smile crossed Shiki's face. So that explained why the vampire had been so subservient. He was working for his father. Shiki clenched his fist, cutting into his palm, so that he could create his blood whip. He looked down, hiding his eyes from his foe to lull him into a false sense of complacency.

"That's alright." He told the vampire. "Because a puppet," He said, looking up to meet the vampire's eyes, and allowing his whip to form, "Is now able to move by its own conscious." It seemed he had been presented with a chance to make Rima's sacrifice worthwhile.

He was not going to waste it.

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My first attempt at a _Vampire Knight_ fan fic. All in all, I think it turned out fairly well. I'm rather fond of Rima and Shiki, especially Rima. You must admit, although she looks like a little doll at times, what with the pigtails and all, she is one tough chick. She's perfectly willing to try to take out Rido to get her Shiki back, and you really must admire that!

Do let me know what you think, please! I hope you enjoyed it!


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